Half as gay, and very unhappy…

Celebrations were muted at the launch of the 25th London Lesbian and Gay film festival. The colourful cake could not compensate for the fact that the silver jubilee edition of the pioneering festival has been cut from 14 days to a shocking six-day stint at BFI Southbank. There are to be no more West End galas, and leading figures in the gay community fear the future of the festival is at risk. A Facebook group called Save the London Lesbian and Gay film festival accrued 500 followers in just three days after the curtailed programme was revealed. Organisers urge joiners to sign a petition requesting that the festival's organising body, the BFI, reconsider their cuts. "The irony is that this year's line-up is particularly strong," says Briony Hanson, a former LLGFF programmer and leading contributor to Diva magazine. The cuts happened very quickly, with no consultation, so there is now a genuine panic that this could be the last we see of this festival."

Film-makers who began their careers with films at the LLGFF include François Ozon, Todd Haynes and Lisa Cholodenko, whose The Kids Are All Right, starring Annette Bening and Julianne Moore as a lesbian couple, had four Oscar nominations last week. These directors are expected to throw their weight behind the campaign to save the festival. LLGFF programmer Jonathan Keane said: "There are still very few images of queer people in the mainstream that are not mediated for straight audiences. And more than any other, the queer community lives and breathes with stories; it's how we get to know who we are. It's incredibly sad that the LLGFF is an early casualty of the coalition government's cuts to the BFI." Taking place from 31 March to 5 April, the festival, which contributes a large number of members to the BFI's annual subscriptions list, may now also look to private benefactors to boost funding.

Loving the aliens

Trash got a sneak peek at Attack the Block last week, ahead of its world premiere this week at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. A comic horror about aliens invading a south London council block and being fought off by "hoodies", it's the very funny, very smart film debut of Joe Cornish, from BBC 6music's cult Adam and Joe show. As Britcoms go, it may be the best since Shaun of the Dead. It features Nick Frost in a minor role and is exec-produced by Edgar Wright. I'm not really supposed to write about it but I can't contain myself. Hurrah. It's out here in May.

Fjord fiesta

The London premiere of Norwegian Wood was your cooler-than-average film party. Vietnam-born director Tran Anh Hung's beautiful, melancholy film of Murakami's novel held its bash at the Haunch of Venison art gallery, attracting Sam Taylor-Wood and Aaron Johnson and adorned by fashion icon and star of the film, Rinko Kikuchi. Also there in among the sushi was Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood, who wrote the film's remarkable score. Hung told me: "I needed this dark beauty that he can create but Thom Yorke wouldn't give Jonny time off from recording the new Radiohead album. Jonny recorded his sessions with Radiohead in the day and would compose my score after, at night, maybe a bit in secret from Thom Yorke. What he did, it's really beautiful." The film also features the Beatles track from Rubber Soul which gave the book its title. "I have no idea how much that cost," says Hung. "I always thought it would be impossible to get, and even asked Jonny to compose an instrumental variation of it. But I sneaked the song on to an early edit of the film to show financiers and, luckily, they fell in love with that and insisted on getting it. I was happy to let them pay for that."

Buongiorno, Woody

Woody Allen's European odyssey looks like taking him to Rome next. His latest London film, You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger, opens here shortly, while his Midnight In Paris will open the Cannes film festival in May. Papers lodged with offices in Rome reveal that the director, now 75, has pencilled in this July to start shooting in the Italian capital for what will be his 42nd feature. Personally, I think it'll be too hot for him in the middle of summer, so quite a few scenes will have to wait until autumn.